The drill scenario was a fuel tank breach on a bulk ore carrier in Hawk Inlet at Admiralty Island; the resulting oil spill was 108,000 gallons of intermediate fuel oil. The 3-day exercise included a training day for all participants, an equipment deployment at Hawk Inlet, and an Incident Management Team tabletop exercise. The OR&R Scientific Support Coordinator (SSC) participated in the field deployment to observe the deployment of environmental protection strategies and on-water recovery strategies and in the establishment of a forward Command Post as a local mining site. The SSC, along with science technical support from Seattle, were able to establish and run Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA) as the common operating picture within the incident command post in Juneau. The SSC worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to develop response strategies for natural resources. Exercise participants included the U.S. Coast Guard, Alaska Departments of Environmental Conservation and Natural Resources, Olendorff Shipping as the responsible party, SEAPRO oil spill response organization, and Hecla Greens Creek Mine for on-scene support.

For further information, contact Catherine.Berg@noaa.gov.

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